


you thought i was asleep

by bananannabeth



Series: things you said when... [7]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, post-tartarus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 02:35:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13261824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bananannabeth/pseuds/bananannabeth
Summary: Annabeth and Percy don't sleep so well after getting out of Tartarus.





	you thought i was asleep

 

Percy found it hard to convince himself that it was safe to sleep, after Tartarus. Like clockwork, every few hours the nightmares had him waking up sweating and screaming and probably crying, tangled in his sheets and convinced, for a few horrifying milliseconds, that he hadn’t made it out of there after all.

 

Annabeth was the same. Percy had woken up one night, the nightmare of losing her still hanging around him, and bolted from his bed, running barefoot to her cabin, heedless of the camp curfew. When he’d opened the door he’d spotted her immediately; awake, sitting in her bed with her knees drawn up under her chin, rocking slightly back and forth. Her grey eyes had been wide and unfocused, and when he sat down in front of her and gripped her arms she’d started to cry.

 

“I thought I’d lost you,” she said. “I dreamt that the doors closed, and I was on one side and you were on the other, and -”

 

“I’m here,” Percy murmured, folding her into his arms and holding her too tight to be comfortable. “We’re together. I’m here, you’re here, we’re together and we’re both safe. We’re together.”

 

They took it in shifts, after that, like they used to do on their quests; except they both stayed up together, and they both slept together. For the first time Percy was grateful to have a cabin to himself, because it meant that no one had to know the extent of their nightmares except for them.

 

When he woke up to a still-asleep Annabeth punching his chest and crying out his name, he could grip her wrists and hold her until she woke. When Percy couldn’t discern what was reality and what was a nightmare, she could crawl into his lap and look into his eyes and say, “This is real. I’m real. We’re real. We’re together, and we’re safe, and it’s real.”

 

These were their little mantras: “We’re together; We’re safe; We’re together; It’s real; We’re together.” 

 

Always, always together. 

 

Gradually, things got better. The nightmares lessened in frequency and intensity. They still slept in shifts, but they could sleep for longer now - on a good night they could manage five hours in a row. 

 

Annabeth didn’t move back to her own cabin. 

 

Percy woke one night to the sound of her muttering, and at first he thought it was another nightmare; still in that groggy state between asleep and awake, he couldn’t quite grasp what she was saying. She didn’t sound panicked though, and he wanted her to get as much sleep as possible, so he lay very still and listened very carefully to her quiet words.

 

“You still drool in your sleep.”

 

He cracked one eye open to peer at his girlfriend, propped up on two pillows and silhouetted by the moon, wringing out the end of her ponytail.

 

“All these years,” she whispered to herself, “and you still drool in your sleep. I can’t believe it.”

 

Percy closed his eyes and, still pretending to be asleep, rolled over and draped an arm lazily across her stomach, pulling himself over so their sides were pressed together. He felt her little laugh, and smiled into his pillow before falling back into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

 


End file.
